Improvement in hot-air engines



Uivrrnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM REINLEIN, OF BARCELONA, SPAIN.

IMPROVEMENT IN HOT-AIR ENGINES.

Specication forming part ot' Letters Patent No. 55,97 l, dated June 26, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, WILLIAM Rn1NLEIN,ot Barcelona. in the Kingdom of Spain, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Calorie or Heated-Air Machinery and I hereby declare the following to be a full, cleat, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention consists of certain improvement-s in hot-airengines, and particularly the Ericsson engine.

To enable those skilled in the art to understand and use my improvements, I will proceed to describe them, referring to the drawings, in which such parts of a hot-air engine are shown which may be necessary for the elucidation ot' my said invention.

The first improvement consists in so arranging the support of an airengine that the axis ofits motor-cylinder shall be vertical instead of horizontal.

I obtain this result by placing the motorcylinder so that its base shall rest on the annular support s s, a cross-section of which is shown in Figure l, and in securing` it thereto by means of screws. Fig. 2 is a plan view ot' the support. The two cross-ribs with which it is provided form the boxes c and b, through which the smoke passes in leaving the boiler before surrounding Vthe cylinder. This improved arrangement of the cylinder does away with the resisting power developed by the friction occasioned by the weight ofthe pistons.

On examining a steam-engine with reference to the power absorbed by the friction of its piston, it is seen that it is almost immaterial whether the cylinder be in a vertical or hori zontal position; `but in a hot-air engine the conditions are not the same, and it is not possi ble to consider as immaterial the position in which the cylinder is placed.

In a steam-engine there is but one piston, while n1 a hot-air engine there are two. The steam-en gine is of double action, while the hotair engine is of single action, and in the latter the feed-piston has a stroke double that ofthe motorpiston. In consequence ofthe perceptible difference between the two engines it follows that in horizontal steam-engines the friction due to the weight of the piston is felt alon g the path or course of the motor-power, while in the hot-air engine the friction arising from the weight ofthe feed-piston takes place naturally along a course fourtim es greater than that traversed by the motor-power, and the friction arising from the weight of the motorpiston continues during a course double that of the motor-power. Consequently, supposing the last two pistons to be of equal weight, and each of them to weigh much as the piston of a steam-engine of the same power, it follows that in the latter kind of engine the relation between the motor-power and that absorbed by the friction produced by the weight of the piston may be represented by the fraction E: in which h is the space traversed by the motoipower,fis that power, and r the friction arising from the weight of the piston, while in the hot-air engine this relation must be eX- pressed byV the fraction Hence it will he understood that a variation which in a steam-engine maybe of slight importance can exercise a very appreciable iniiuence upon a hot-air engine.

A second advantage which arises from this improvement is that the weight of the pistons in the engine, inodited asjust related, serves to regulate its motion, acting during the time in'which it moves as a retarding power, which resists the motion, and during the neutral period as an accelerating power, returning all the power which it had before taken away from the engine. Besides, with this new arrangement there will be no longer any diculty in making the pistons of any desired or fitting weigh t. The engine will thus be of as uniform motion as can be desired, without recourse being had to eccentric iiy-wheels, which are prejudicial to the efficiency of the motor.

My second improvement consists in substitilting for the cast-iron dome which'acts as a furnace to the Ericsson engine a tubular boiler. (Represented in Fig. 1, in vertical section on the broken lineM N P, Fig. 5.) Fig. 3 is a side View of the same, and Fig. 4 a plan View. Fig. 5 is a section of the machine on the line H H, Fig. 1. rEhis tubular boiler is composed of three horizontal plates of boiler-iron secured and held together, two by two,by the tubes 7c, a, and q. The space between the plates It' h is further shut in and inclosed by the cylindrical casin g Z l, made of thin boiler-iron. From this arrangementit follows that the liaine and other products of combustion, which commence g their course in the interior of the tubes K, (indicated in Fig. 1,) then heat the exterior of the tubes a, and descending through the tubes q) they pass into the smoke-compartments a and b and the channels c which surround the cylinder, and thence they escape through the smoke-stack.

The cold air drawn in by the machine in its ascending course and deposited between the two pistons should pass under thc feed-piston during the period of its motion, and it is easy to see, by reference to Fig. 1, that in order to arrive at that point it must pass around all the boiler-tubes by the face precisely opposite to that around which the products of combustion pass.

The ljrst advantage derived from this second improved arrangement is that under the arrangement ofthe tubular boiler, as described, in the same machine a heating-surface can be produced four times greater than that of the Ericsson machine, and, if need be, it can be used to extend and enlarge all the tubes of which the boiler is composed. It in the tubes n a piece of boiler-iron be placed of the same length and of a width equal to the interior diameter ofthe tube, the heating-surface will be still further augmented.

In makin g it appear thatin twolikemachines constructed on the Ericsson system the heating-surfaces are in proportion to the squares of their diameters and the quantities otair put in action in the two machines are in proportion to the cubes of the same diameters, and that the ratio between the quantity of air put in action in a machine and its heating-surface increases with the dimensions of the machine, it follows that the conditions for Working the machine economically will be found to be less favorable in proportion as the dimensions are increased; but in using the tubular boiler I have described the heating-surface increases with the machine and in proportion to the quantity af air required to be heated; and it may be asserted that in employing this boiler hot-air machines can be applied to all degrees of power, whatever may be the dimensions of the machinery or apparatus. l

Lastly, athird improvementconsistsin using in hot-air machines combustibles heretofore almost exclusively used for purposes of illumination,such as gas, mineral-oils, portable gas, &c.

In order to apply to my improved boiler the heat generated by these combustibles, it will be sui'licient to place under each of the tubes 'n one of these ignited gases or liquids, and the intensity ofthe iiame may be regulated bycocks suitably arranged for that purpose; but to this I lay no claim.

From the above it will be seen that my improvements effect the following` objects: first, economy ot fuel; second, ability to regulate the tempera-ture ot' the machine ,to any desired pointg'third, certainty that the so acquired temperature may be maintained; fourth, the suppression of smoke which allows the machine to be located in the interior ot' residences or dwelling-houses.

What I claim as my improvements, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The arrangement of the support ot' an airengine so that the axis ot' the motor-cylinder shall be vertical, in the manner and for the purposes 'set forth.

2. The combination and arrangement of a tubular boiler in the place of the dome which serves as a furnace in the Ericsson machine, as and for the purposes described. l

In testimony whereot'I have signed my name to this specitcation before two subscribing witnesses.

GUILL. REINLEIN. [L

Witnesses:

MARIANO DE PEDRO, XAVIER DE SALAS. 

